540M vs 460M

I am basically considering the Kobalt G150 and GS150. Their difference is that the G150 has the 460M gfx card while the GS150 has the 540M gfx card with optimus. I won't really game on the laptop so i that means i don't really need the additional power of the 460M but i would like to have it just in case.

My question is whether there are any heat and noise comparison charts between the two cards.

Battery life is not that important as long as it is not severely affected but from what i have read so far, 540M laptops are can be much cooler.

 

Hi,

I went with the lower graphics card (it is rated a class 2 out of 5 at notebookcheck), and the 460m is a big step up in price. The 540m already kicks the sh*t out of almost every other laptop out there.

Realize that the 540m is already very good, whereas the 460m is great

Just to get you started, notebook checks lists the TDP (thermal design power) of the two chips.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

You're looking at 72 vs. 35 watts. Pretty big difference. Also the 460m does not have optimus, where as the 540m does. So, yes, there will be a big battery life difference.

Someone can chime in who knows more but I see people saying sub 3 hours for the higher end where was with the lower end you'll see 4+.

 

Thanks for your reply. I always go for more power but in this case i might skip the 460M.

 

The 540M is not "good", it's just passable, for low resolution gaming. When system requirement are listing the desktop 8800 GT as minimum, know that the 540M is below the line.

The 460M is at least 50% faster, conservatively.

 

The 540M should be decent or good at least. It should be able to compete with a 8800GS

 

Just check here at this link and it will tell you what FPS to expect for each game for each GPU.

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

540 is near a 5650, where you can get comfortable gaming on medium settings.

460 on the other hand can handle alot of games on ultra.

So there is a big gap in performance.

I'd say the 540 isn't future proof because in 1 year, it'll probably only handle low settings.

This is how I look at it:
See which setting your video card can handle NOW. For every year that goes by, substract 1 setting (low - med - high - ultra ) group. Ask yourself if you'll be happy on year 1/2/3?

 

I understand that the 460M is more future proof but i am more concerned about how hot the notebook will get

 

The heat isn't a big deal with these laptops. There are people with 485m's and I haven't heard a peep regarding heat from them. Unless you plan on seriously playing games on your lap, then putting it on a table will increase the airflow too. Its a non issue. Besides if anyone feels that their laptop is to hot for their liking I'm sure that they will just get a cooler.

 

Thermal paste is also cheap on these units, which reduce temps by around -10c.

The reseller I chose (GenTech) charges:
IC Diamond 24 Carat Thermal Compound on both CPU/GPU : $25

...which is dirt cheap.

As for heating up, Sager is known to have one of the best venting systems on the market (the Asus G53/73 series is also very, very good at this).

 

For us people who build our own pc's its expensive, and we can do it for so much cheaper ourselves :]

 

Not to bash Sager in anyway, but IMO the Asus G series is at the top of laptop cooling. It just sucks that they look like cases used to call in nuclear missiles

 

Actually the 540m is faster than the 5650 in most benchmarks. But yeah, it will allow you to game at FHD on medium settings though don't expect it to run well with shadows turned on.

 

Personally, I find that it's every 2 years, minus the big graphical hits. The likes of Metro 2033 or Crysis. And then, Crysis 2 is supposed to run better than the first due to optimization of their new engine.

 

No way.

The 9800M GT competes with the 8800 GS, and that's a 256-bit GDDR3 mobile chip. Something with 128-bit DDR3 can not keep up with either of those.

 

Are you sure you're not exaggerating the importance of memory bandwidth? At least as far as gaming performance goes.

 

NOT exaggerating.

540M only to compete with GT240-GD3 or 9600GSO(G94) which are weaker than 9600GT/GT240-GD5/9600GSO(G92, = 8800GS)

 

Hmm, well, there has never been a 128-bit GDDR3/DDR3 chip, which equaled even the 9800M GT, and it isn't going to happen. It's almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of memory bandwidth to gaming.

Just look up the Mobility 5850, and compare the GDDR5 and DDR3 versions. Same exact chip, only difference being the memory, and it smokes it by like 40%.

 

Would the rated 1-3 hour difference be considered "severely affected"?
(2-3 hours on the 460M GTX vs. 3-5 hours on the 540M GT)

 

Its actually quite important.

Gaming is certainly not my primary focus so even though i want the 460M it might not be worth it

 

You know, just to add a bit of numbers to this debate. I'm going to just put this chart here for you guys

Ranked in order of power it goes 9800M GT > 8800M GTX > 8800M GTS > 540M GT
The 3D mark Vantage benchmarks go: 9800M @ 3725 > 8800M GTX @ 3357 > 8800M GTS @ 2220 > 540m GT @ 3498 (inexplicably, it's higher in vantage, but lower in every other benchmark- fluke?)

For a rough comparison, the 460m gets 6721 and the 485m 12199. Essentially- the 460m is almost the same is SLI of any of the above cards, and the 485m is SLI of the 460m's (or 4x of the other ones).

The 9800m GT/8800M GTX/540M are almost all equal in terms of performance, but still only 1/2 what you can get with the mainstream 460m, or 1/4 the high end 6970 or 485m.

The 9800M GT *Does NOT* compete with the 8800M GTS as you can see from the 30% improvement gain. It actually competes with the 8800M GTX (Which makes sense considering the 9xxx series is a rebranded and die shrunk 8*** series)

 

Okay, let's lay this one to bed...



The 540M is on par with the Mobility 5730, period. It will come nowhere A 9800M GT.

 

Yeah the 540m is really just a WoW gaming card. It'll handle a few other games on medium settings at 720p but really, its just not a "gamers" card.

 

I won't disagree with that comparison. The 540m falls at number 67 in the rankings chart with the 5730 at 68, they're only a measly few percentage points difference. The 9800M GT is still 20% faster on the average.

BUT when compared to the other modern cards like 460, 485, or 6970, it's like comparing a '98 camry to a '10 porsche. They just aren't in the same league anymore. So for all intents an purposes, I'd lump the 540m, 9800m, and 8800m's into the mid-low end category compared to current stuff.

 

Just give me an Optimus card that can run SC2 on High/Ultra 900p, dangit (555m, I'm looking at you).

 

I don't think the 555m would be able to either. Check out that chart I linked a few posts up. If you check out the benchmarks for the 555m, it's within 2% of the 6850m. The 6850m scores 20fps on ultra with SC2.

 

Wait, is the 540m really that bad? I actually wanna play new games like shogun 2 and the witcher 2 and sub hd resolutions. Will it be fine?

 

Well, the minimum req'd GPU for The Witcher 2 is the 8800 GT, and the 540M is like.... 40% slower than it.

Not looking good, tbh.

edit: adjusted my figures a bit

 

460m --- 900p screen
540m --- 720p screen
the price of above two notebook is different

or you may choose a 540m+900p for non-gaming use
you'll watch HD 720p mkv and play some games in medium-to-low settings.

in fact even 540m can match 1080p but only in MKV watching , not new game playing .

in normal office work 540m is enough .

 

I've seen a few videos and read around quite a bit and the GT 540m is really a very good card for those non enthusiast gamers. I've seen it run BO on all high settings at 900p as well as Crysis. Granted it's not a super GPU intensive game, but it will play new games just fine. You should be able to play most all games at 720 to 900p at or close to high settings or possibly even higher.


I wouldn't worry about it not holding up. But of course if you want more, go with a better video card

 

Oh, the not super GPU intensive part was me talking about BO not Crysis lol.

 

So can the 540 play Blue Ray movies fine for us noobs? The price difference is quite a bit. Compare itto my last laptop, 128 mb 9100 radeon IGP, and I think, maybe, the 540 is a step up for me.

 

The 540M is an astromonical leap from the Radeon 9100 IGP.

Running Blu-ray movies only requires one of today's IGP. The 540M is way overkill for that process.

 

I'n considering a laptop wit 540gt, i don't play games so often but i play stalker shadows of tjernobyl, hl2 + dod:s, will a 540 card handle it on high @ 720p resolution?

 

I had no problems with test runs of my np5160 running left for dead 2 and cod:mw2 on high at 1080p. Just make sure you turn off Triple buffered Vertical Sync. I can try to get fps tonight, just ran through games quickly to make sure all ran fine.

 

That would be really nice. I want to replace my old computer with these specs:
*Asus Rampage Formula*E6750 @ E6850 + Xigmatek S1283
*8800gts + HR-03 GT
*Dominator 2x2048mb pc8500
*1x80gb ssd intel x-25 g2

With this:
*Core i5, 2410M
*GeForce GT 540M 2gb
*2x4gb DDR3, 1066MHz
*1x80gb ssd intel x-25 g2

Like i said before, i mostly play on my ps3. But a few times a year i play through Half Life2 & Portal & Stalker Shadows of Tjernobyl....

 

Should be fine, looked like TF2, L4D2, and COD:MW2 ran around 50+ fps and didn't notice slowdown when a lot of stuff was going on.

 

Just know that the 8800 GTS is significantly faster, depending on which version you have.

 

Yeah, the GT 540M is more like a G80 8800GTS or G92 8800GT

The GTX 460M is more like a GTX 216

 

The 540M is a minimum of 40% slower than the 8800 GT.

 

It's slower, but not 40% slower

I'd say its somewhere between the original 8800 GTS 320/640MB and the 8800 GT 512MB. Older performance though, either way you look at it

 

Yea the 540M will be a minimum of 40% slower than the 8800GT (which is exactly the same as a 9800GT) . but it would only be roughly the same as an 8800GTS. 8800GT = 96 pipelines , 8800GTS = 64 pipelines.

 

Think about it though. How could that be? None of those chips are 128-bit like the GT 540M. How would it catch up to them? Even the lowly 8800 GTS 320MB is 320-bit GDDR3. The 9800M GT is in league with those chips, because it is 256-bit GDDR3. The GT 540M would even get handled by the 192-bit 9600 GSO.

It just isn't a strong chip.

 

I think we have some confusion here. I referred to desktops, where the 8800 GT = 112 SP's, 8800 GTS = 96 SP flavor first, then eventually 128 with G92 revision

Don't get me wrong here, the GT 540M is clearly not a powerful chip. But I think you're overselling what the 8800 GTS 320/640 is.

Yes, the GTS 320 is 320-bit GDDR3, but memory bandwidth only goes so far - it was largely wasted on the GTS 320 because the 320MB held it back far before the memory bandwidth did. Not to mention that the GDDR3 on the 8800 GTS 320 was slower than the GT540M's GDDR3

Also, the GTS 320/640 was clocked at 513/1188 core/shader compared to the GT 540M's 672/1344 core/shader. That's a 30% and 13% increase in each for the GT540M, respectively, to make no mention of the architecture improvements going from a G80 to a GF108/GF118 core

Yes, the card isn't much to talk about, but at this point, neither are the G80 8800 GTS's. Besides, the memory bandwidth problem is a big issue since neither of them are going to be able to do much above the native resolution the GT 540M is usually put on (1366x768) in modern titles

 

I have a Gainward 8800gt 512mb and suits me just fine in terms of performance in the games i play. Will it be a big downgrade to 540gt? As i mentioned before i only play old games like hl2, stalker shadows of tjernobyl.....

 

DevilTech already has the GT 555M card for an extra 59 euros.
Notebookcheck says slightly above 9800M GT in synthetics.

 

As I said above, 8800 GT -> GT 540M is a 45% drop.

 

That sucks.... A GTX 460m would be nice, but i cant find a 13-14" laptop with a reasonable size and price. Looks like i will get a acer 4830tg and save my current computer for gaming later on.....